A typical mobile phone handset includes a CMOS front end configured for operating with 3G or 4G transmit and receive frequencies. It contains four receivers, each covering a band allocated for cellular service. The two transmitters cover the corresponding bands. Beyond telecommunications transceivers, the phone typically contains separate Bluetooth, WiFi and GPS receivers, which add significantly to cost and consume a substantial amount of power. To address this problem, recently released front-end integrated circuits (ICs) include integrated GPS and WiFi transceivers. However, even with integrated receivers, front end ICs still require large, expensive and power intensive A/D converters and DSPs. Among the deficiencies of this architecture, it is not adaptive to new frequency allocations. New front end ICs must be developed to incorporate hardware changes to receiver and transmitter structures as services and frequency allocations evolve. Moreover, devices are unable to operate across different standards/geographies without redundant hardware, and adding incremental receiver and transmitter structures increases power consumption and cost.
As high data rate services become ubiquitous, power consumption and cost will increase greatly, as the digital components required for such services are prohibitively expensive and draw down power quickly. In a market calling for efficiency and low cost, the current mobile handset architecture is pushing the technology in the opposite direction.